There will be no significant impact on the health of Sydney residents in the unlikely situation of a radioactive incident at ANSTO’s replacement research reactor (RRR), currently being constructed, it was confirmed today.
"A recent ill-founded article in The Bulletin regarding this issue makes no attempt to give an accurate or balanced account of the events it describes," said Dr Ron Cameron, Acting Executive Director of ANSTO.
"Its purpose seems only to cause unwarranted alarm to the community," continued Dr Cameron.
The assertion that residents living within 80km of ANSTO would be affected by radioactivity in the instance of an incident is totally untrue and was discredited years ago by independent reviews.
"The design of the RRR is aligned with best practice international security standards for research reactors," said Dr Cameron. "The design has also been subject to additional review processes by ARPANSA, ASIO and ASNO.
"If an aeroplane flew into the RRR it is extremely unlikely it would penetrate the containment building itself.
Even if that occurred it would have to go through a highly reinforced 1.5 metre thick wall to reach the reactor pool," continued Dr Cameron.
Despite believing that a breach of the various levels of protection surrounding the RRR was unlikely, ANSTO also made an assessment of what might occur if this did eventuate.
"A key finding of this study was that there would be no significant impact on either people or the environment, even if an event of this severity were to occur. The CEO of ARPANSA, Dr John Loy, endorsed this conclusion in licensing the construction of the reactor," said Dr Cameron.
In regard to licence compliance, Dr Cameron said that ANSTO reports promptly to its regulator, ARPANSA, on any nuclear safety and licence compliance issues.
"ANSTO has never breached the conditions of its licence to construct the RRR," said Dr Cameron. "At a recent Senate estimate enquiry, it was accepted that ANSTO acted promptly and properly as soon as we were informed about an error in the RRR pool liner. We informed ARPANSA as soon as we became aware of the error.
"The plain fact is that we would never accept any component for the RRR that did not comply with licence and construction specifications.
"It is true, however, that the RRR’s main contractor, INVAP, breached licence conditions regarding the timing of cutting penetrations in the pool liner base. ARPANSA subsequently approved the item without modification.
"To say that ANSTO has been secretive in its operations with regard to safety is plainly ludicrous when these facts are taken into account. We are extremely sensitive to the needs and concerns of the community and take our responsibilities very seriously," concluded Dr Cameron.
Published: 12/11/2003